Unit VII Scholarly Activity Address both of the following writing prompts. Your
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Question
Unit VII Scholarly Activity Address both of the following writing prompts.
Your responses to both of your chosen prompts should be at least 500 words each.
No title page is needed, but be sure to indicate which writing prompts you are addressing at the top of each response. Each response needs its own reference page. Writing Prompts (respond to both):
1. Review the Reading Assignment titled as "Designing a Low-Cost Pollution Prevention Plan to Pay Off at the University of Houston" by Bialowas, Sullivan, and Schneller. In your review, describe: why the university developed a P2 plan, the process of bulking hazardous wastes, fume hood modifications, and cost savings, MEE 6201, Advanced Pollution Prevention 6 silver recovery and cost savings, oil reclamation plan and cost savings, and your overall thoughts about the university's P2 program.
2. Review the Reading Assignment titled as "Effectiveness of State Pollution Prevention Programs and Policies" by Donna Harrington. In your review, describe: the three objectives of the study, the Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) and its impact on P2, the empirical model (framework) used in the study, costs of P2 programs, and the article's conclusions and your thoughts about the conclusions. You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for both of your responses. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.
Explanation / Answer
The article Designing a Low-Cost Pollution Prevention Plan to Pay Off at the University of Houston discusses the issue of waste management at the University of Houston. The University is now classified as a large quantity generator of hazardous waste according to the rules in Texas producing over 1000 kg of waste annually (Bialowas, Sullivan & Schneller, 2006). These quantities can be attributed to the large quantities of waste that are generated at the University from the scientific and teaching activities at the campus. The waste that is generated from these activities is discarded as required by the EPA. It is required by the TCEQ that a five year pollution prevention plan is prepared in order to eliminate and also minimize the amount of hazardous waste that is generated from the institution. The authors of this article focus on the design and development of a low cost prevention plan and the least implementation obstacles that can be applied in the development of the plan (Bialowas, Sullivan & Schneller, 2006).
The development and implementation of this project involved a number of steps. The project consists of safely bulking compatible chemical wastes through the combination of individual containers into a single larger container. For there to be successful bulking of the chemical waste, there must be a reduction in the quantity of the lab pack. Generally, a lab pack consists of about 14 to 16 individual bottles that are placed throughout the absorbent packing material. Normally, the entire drum is considered hazardous waste (Osmani, Glass & Price, 2008). However, the most significant percentage is the packing material. The photographic laboratories at the institution generated approximately 6 tons of liquid silver containing waste in 2003 and 6.5 tons in 2004. Silver is primarily one of the primary components of film and photographic paper makes it possible to form an image. Even though it is not an ingredient of the original photographic solution, it is a product of the film and the paper processing. Silver that is in the form of thiosulfates anionic complex can be removed from the photographic processing solutions through a number of techniques including electrolytic recovery, metallic replacement, precipitation and ion exchange (Osmani, Glass & Price, 2008). The most appropriate alternative for the University is the combination of the electrolytic recovery system followed by the chemical recovery cartridge system.
One of the main benefits that will be realized from the development of the P2 plan for the University is that it will be possible for them to improve on the existing recycling efforts that have already been put into place. This is particularly important to the recycling of oil at the institution. There is a fleet of about 139 trucks and cars and the university has an auto shop that carries out routine maintenance on these vehicles. The shop has a used oil collection system with a pump, an associated piping and a 1000 gallon storage tank (Bialowas, Sullivan & Schneller, 2006). The team dealing with waste minimization realized that oil from other parts could be added to oil from the auto shop. This project is expected to help the institution make 100% savings on oil disposal.
Generally, the P2 plan as designed and developed by the university is quite comprehensive and takes care of the areas affecting the institution. The implementations of this plan will not only help the institution save on the cost disposal but will also help to empower the previous disposal operations such as waste disposal and collection of waste oil. Indeed the university will save greatly from the plan.
References
Bialowas, Y. D., Sullivan, E. C., & Schneller, R. D. (2006). Designing a low-cost pollution prevention plan to pay off at the University of Houston. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 56(9), 1320-1324.
Osmani, M., Glass, J., & Price, A. D. (2008). Architects’ perspectives on construction waste reduction by design. Waste Management, 28(7), 1147-1158.
Effectiveness of State Pollution Prevention Programs and Policies
This article mainly focuses on the level to which state pollution prevention program and policies are effective. According to the author, states are increasingly increasing the use of regulatory information and the management based policies in order to encourage the adoption of pollution prevention plans and also the reduction of the pollution levels (Harrington, 2013). Through the use of samples from S7P 500 firms which did report to the Toxic Releases Inventory from the year 1991 to 2001, the authors make use of the dynamic panel data models in order to examine the level to which the state legislations and policies are effective in the increase of the P2 and also reduction of the toxic wastes (Harrington, 2013). The author asserts that toxic waste legislations are effective in the reduction of toxic waste that is released therefore promoting the use and application of pollution prevention plans. However, there is a huge difference on the effect of the policy instruments in various situations.
Various facilities in the states that have mandatory reporting and planning tend to adopt a greater number of pollution prevention plans even in states that do not put any emphasis on the reduction of toxic waste. The extent to which reporting is effective has been seen to be stronger among the facilities that have a substantially good environmental performance. On the other hand, the potency of mandatory planning is much greater among the facilities that have a history of P2 experience (Bui & Mayer, 2003). The numerical goals set only have the tendency to reduce the levels of toxic pollution only among those which have been subjected to various high levels of enforcement action. This may imply that reporting requirement and mandatory planning may be used to promote P2 practices which can eventually improve the public image which at the end will be of great benefit to the technical teams. However, they may not be causing any level of meaningful reduction in pollution meaning that the currently existing policies must be complemented using any other approaches that can be used to achieve higher reductions in the toxic levels of pollution (Harrington, 2013).
The Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) programs generally track the management of toxic chemicals that may be a threat to human health and the environment. Various facilities in different industries report annually on the volume of the toxic chemical waste that can be managed as waste material, recycled, treated or even burned for energy recovery. Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) programs are mainly dependent on the type of data. One notable impact of TRI programs is the substantial decrease in the management of toxic wastes (Harrington, 2013). The analysis of the impact of pollution has become much easier with these application programs thus improving on the management of waste. The cost of P2 programs vary depending on the instruments used and the mode of application. However, the greatest determining factor is the level of complexity of the toxic material hence the P2 program.
Indeed there has been an increase in the use of regulatory practices among organizations in pollution prevention. The practice of reporting and planning has been working for various organizations. In, my opinion, this is a practice that is not only beneficial to the organizations but also to the environment as well as human health. P2 programs that encourage increased monitoring and management of pollution should be encouraged and adopted in various organizations.
References
Harrington, Donna. (2013). Effectiveness of state pollution prevention programs and policies. Contemporary Economic Policy,31(2), 255-278.
Bui, L. T., & Mayer, C. J. (2003). Regulation and capitalization of environmental amenities: evidence from the toxic release inventory in Massachusetts. Review of Economics and statistics, 85(3), 693-708.
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